The majority of illnesses that plague humans and other vertebrates involve disease and pathology associated with various internal organs such as the heart, lungs, kidneys, bladder, etc. Most often, an individual does not recognize the symptoms, if any, related to a disease process occurring in an internal organ and the problem goes untreated until gross symptoms appear at the physical level. Even if symptoms do appear, they all too frequently are not state specific, and therefore require a battery of highly specific and specialized tests to determine the precise location and nature of the disorder. Many of such tests are invasive of the body and create patient anxiety and cause physical discomfort or pain.
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for non-invasively measuring bioelectric potentials at selected dermal (skin) points on the body of man to detect existing or impending illness, dysfunction, disease and/or pathology. Direct current potentials on the dermal surfaces of man and other vertebrates have long been described, measured and correlated with a variety of biological functions. Standing D.C. potential patterns over the human body were described by H. S. Burr and F. S. C. Northrup in their paper entitled "The Electrodynamic Theory of Life," Quarterly Review of Biology, 1955 10, 322-333. More recently the D.C. potential fields have been mapped with some precision and the pattern has been found to be roughly parallel to the gross anatomical arrangement of the central nervous system. R. O. Becker concluded that two bioelectric data transmission and control systems coexist in man and most other present-day vertebrates, i.e., one a sophisticated, action potential, digital-type system, and the other, a more basic primitive analog-type system, "The Basic Biological Data Transmission and Control System Influenced by Electrical Forces," Annals New York Academy of Sciences, 1974, 236-241. Becker further observed D.C. voltage sources along the course of the peripheral data channels of the analog-type system. Such sites show lower resistence and higher voltage values which change significantly in response to irregularity or pathology in the body organs related to specific sites through the autonomic nervous system. Simply stated, the presence of some type of inrregularity or pathology in an organ or organ system related to a specific site produces a significant alteration of the D.C. potential at the dermal surface of such site.
This invention is related to the invention disclosed and claimed in our co-pending application Ser. No. 06/453,744 filed on Dec. 27, 1982 and entitled "Method and Apparatus for Detecting Ovulation."